[Leica] Willi Stein and Adam Wagner

[Marc James Small <msmall@roanoke.infi.net>]

At 10:06 PM 9/24/1999 -0000, Doug Richardson wrote:
>
>
>I'm a journalist who needs to take photos on assignment, and use the
>CL as my main "working" camera - although it's small and light, and
>less rugged than a classic M, I've never thought of it as a "bargain"
>Leica, or something which is inferior to my IIIg, M2 or SL2. Willi
>Stein its designer was one of the 'old school' Wetzlar guys who'd
>joined the company as an apprentice (in 1925 I think), so this wasn't
>a creation of a cost-cutting "bean counter" but from someone who was
>raised in the Leitz tradition and who wanted to create a "people's
>Leica".

Well, the "people's Leica" fellow was Adam Wagner, the true disciple of
Barnack;  Stein was a bit of a maverick.  But Leitz accepted Stein's M3
over Wagner's IIIg as the wave of the future, and, when his Leica H was not
produced, Wagner left Leica in 1966.  

Stein was a pretty smart fellow and sound designer, and his M3 concept --
which he first conceptualized as the Leica IV while Barnack was still alive
- -- became the basis for our present M6.

But I've never cared for the CL or CLE.  Stein may well have designed it
but it still feels a bit tinny and thin after the solid thunk of an M3 or
IIIc.

Marc

msmall@roanoke.infi.net  FAX:  +540/343-7315
Cha robh bas fir gun ghras fir!